There wasn't much to go on. The police salvaged the slip of paper that
a small-time East Coast drug dealer tried to eat before being
arrested, but on it they found scribbled only a telephone number and
what appeared to be the name "John." This frustrated the police. They
had anticipated more incriminating information on the man they
believed was the supplier not only to the dealer they'd just busted,
but also to dozens of other street corner crack peddlers. With two
slim leads, the police weren't technically equipped to do much more
than antiquated detective work that probably wouldn't yield evidence
they could use to indict John. So they turned to the quasi-secretive,
federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) for the digital
sleuthing they needed.

Less than 45 minutes after receiving the official police request for
help, FinCEN had retrieved enough evidence of criminal wrongdoing from
government databases that the district attorney prosecuting the case
was able to seek indictments against John on charges of money
laundering and conspiracy to traffic narcotics. The local police were
impressed.

Launched with a low-key champagne reception at the Treasury Department
in April 1990, FinCEN is the US government's (perhaps the world's)
most effective financial crime investigation unit. Even Russian
President Boris Yeltsin asked for its help in locating stolen
Communist Party funds. This state-of-the-art computer-snooping agency
is quietly tucked away under the auspices of the Treasury Department.
Its mission is to map the digital trails of dirty money, be it the
laundered profits from drug sales, stolen S&L loot, hidden political
slush funds, or the financing conduits of terrorists. It's the only
federal unit devoted solely to the systematic collation and
cross-analysis of law enforcement, intelligence, and public databases.

Until August 1993, FinCEN headquarters was an old Social Security
Administration building with a ceiling ravaged by asbestos abatement
crews, but that didn't seem to faze director Brian Bruh (he retired in
October). With 25 years of experience in law enforcement, Bruh is a
seasoned federal cop who has headed up criminal investigations at both
the IRS and the Pentagon. Prior to overseeing FinCEN, he was the chief
investigator for the Tower Commission, President Reagan's blue ribbon
probe into the Iran-Contra scandal. FinCEN was his crowning
achievement, and he took pride in directing visitors to FinCEN's
computer command center as he touted the agency's successes.

In private and in testimony to Congress, statistics roll off Bruh's
tongue. Last year FinCEN's computer operations center responded to
priority requests for tactical intelligence on nearly 12,000
individuals and entities, doubling the 1991 workload. The 1993 total
will be three times the 1991 sum. Longer-term strategic analytical
reports have been completed for 715 investigations involving 16,000
other individuals and entities.

Two of the government's biggest strikes against organized drug-money
laundering - operations Green Ice (a lengthy DEA operation that
resulted in the arrests of high-ranking Cali and Medellin cartel
financial officers and the seizure of US$54 million in cash and
assets) and Polar Cap V (a spinoff of Green Ice that culminated in
April 1990) - owe a great deal to FinCEN for having identified and
targeted money laundering activities via computer. In the Polar Cap
operation, FinCEN's computer tracking documented more than US$500
million in financial activity by 47 individuals who have since been
indicted on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

Inside FinCEN's new digs on the second floor of a gleaming high-rise
office building down the road from the CIA in Vienna, Virginia
(otherwise known as "Spook City"), the talents of the IRS, FBI, DEA,
Secret Service, and other traditional federal cops such as customs
agents and postal inspectors are pooled. According to senior
intelligence officers, these investigative units can access the
resources of the CIA, the National Security Agency (which intercepts
data on electronic currency movements into and out of the United
States, some of which make their way into FinCEN's analyses), and the
Defense Intelligence Agency.

Bruh and other FinCEN officials openly acknowledge their association
with the CIA, but they refuse to discuss further any aspect of
FinCEN's dealings with it or any other intelligence agency. In
addition to the CIA, intelligence officials have admitted, off the
record, that the National Security Council and the State Department's
Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) have also joined FinCEN's
impressive intelligence crew. In short, FinCEN is a one-of-a-kind
cauldron containing all the available financial intelligence in the
United
States.